1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to display devices and, in particular, to digital light processing displays. Still more particularly, the present invention provides a method and apparatus for miniaturizing digital light processing displays using high refractive index crystals.
2. Description of Related Art
Digital light processing (DLP™) is a technology from Texas Instruments for projecting color displays. DLP™ displays use very large scale integration (VLSI) to fabricate thousands of tiny mirrors on a chip. The mirrors are on hinges on top of a static random access memory (SRAM) array. Each mirror is capable of switching a pixel of light. A DLP™ chip may also include video processing components for converting analog signals to digital and for converting digital video signals into signals necessary to time the switching of the mirrors. The array of mirrors may be referred to as a digital micromirror device (DMD™)
FIG. 1 illustrates an example of a conventional digital light processing display system. DLP™ displays give a very high resolution and use a well understood technology. Since the mirrors that are used reflect any type of light, the DLP™ array of mirrors must first display one color, then another, and then a third (usually red, green, and blue) in rapid succession. The human eye is then capable of merging the colors as necessary. For example, red light and green light and blue light are all projected in succession, the human eye will merge these colors into white light.
To generate these colors, a high intensity light is shown through a filter wheel. A motor typically spins the wheel, rotating three colored filters in succession in front of the light. A controller synchronizes the switching of the mirrors with the timing of the colored filters. The controller may be a separate component or part of the DLP™ chip. The resulting light is reflected by the appropriate subset of the mirrors and projected onto precise pixels on a screen.